DISINFO: The coup in Kyiv created a military-political crisis for Donbas
SUMMARY
The Donbas region in eastern Ukraine has been witnessing a military-political crisis since 2014, against the backdrop of a coup in the capital, Kyiv, which came after widespread protests in which nationalist forces actively participated.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation message about eastern Ukraine claiming that a“military-political crisis” came as a response to the 2013-14 protests in Kyiv, painted as a coup d'état while avoiding mentioning the presence of the Russian military in the area.
The aim of these messages is to present the situation in Eastern Ukraine as an internal conflict, ignoring irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in the region.
The destabilisation of Eastern Ukraine has been condemned by the Council of the European Union and have led to restrictive measures since 2014. The EU has stressed on several occasions that Ukraine’s borders must be respected, and the same goes for the UN.
Moreover, there was no coup d'état in Ukraine. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was a reaction by numerous segments of the Ukrainian population to former president Viktor Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013.
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